Physical sketching tools and techniques for customized sensate surfaces

Sensate surfaces are a promising avenue for enhancing human interaction with digital systems due to their inherent intuitiveness and natural user interface. Recent technological advancements have enabled sensate surfaces to surpass the constraints of conventional touchscreens by integrating them into everyday objects, creating interactive interfaces that can detect various inputs such as touch, pressure, and gestures. This allows for more natural and intuitive control of digital systems. However, prototyping interactive surfaces that are customized to users' requirements using conventional techniques remains technically challenging due to limitations in accommodating complex geometric shapes and varying sizes. Furthermore, it is crucial to consider the context in which customized surfaces are utilized, as relocating them to fabrication labs may lead to the loss of their original design context. Additionally, prototyping high-resolution sensate surfaces presents challenges due to the complex signal processing requirements involved. This thesis investigates the design and fabrication of customized sensate surfaces that meet the diverse requirements of different users and contexts. The research aims to develop novel tools and techniques that overcome the technical limitations of current methods and enable the creation of sensate surfaces that enhance human interaction with digital systems.Sensorische Oberflächen sind aufgrund ihrer inhärenten Intuitivität und natürlichen Benutzeroberfläche ein vielversprechender Ansatz, um die menschliche Interaktionmit digitalen Systemen zu verbessern. Die jüngsten technologischen Fortschritte haben es ermöglicht, dass sensorische Oberflächen die Beschränkungen herkömmlicher Touchscreens überwinden, indem sie in Alltagsgegenstände integriert werden und interaktive Schnittstellen schaffen, die diverse Eingaben wie Berührung, Druck, oder Gesten erkennen können. Dies ermöglicht eine natürlichere und intuitivere Steuerung von digitalen Systemen. Das Prototyping interaktiver Oberflächen, die mit herkömmlichen Techniken an die Bedürfnisse der Nutzer angepasst werden, bleibt jedoch eine technische Herausforderung, da komplexe geometrische Formen und variierende Größen nur begrenzt berücksichtigt werden können. Darüber hinaus ist es von entscheidender Bedeutung, den Kontext, in dem diese individuell angepassten Oberflächen verwendet werden, zu berücksichtigen, da eine Verlagerung in Fabrikations-Laboratorien zum Verlust ihres ursprünglichen Designkontextes führen kann. Zudem stellt das Prototyping hochauflösender sensorischer Oberflächen aufgrund der komplexen Anforderungen an die Signalverarbeitung eine Herausforderung dar. Diese Arbeit erforscht dasDesign und die Fabrikation individuell angepasster sensorischer Oberflächen, die den diversen Anforderungen unterschiedlicher Nutzer und Kontexte gerecht werden. Die Forschung zielt darauf ab, neuartigeWerkzeuge und Techniken zu entwickeln, die die technischen Beschränkungen derzeitigerMethoden überwinden und die Erstellung von sensorischen Oberflächen ermöglichen, die die menschliche Interaktion mit digitalen Systemen verbessern

"Like This, But Better": Supporting Novices' Design and Fabrication of 3D Models Using Existing Objects

Despite the prevalence of affordable “maker” tools such as 3D printers and laser cutters, actually creating digital models remains out of the reach of most everyday users. Even when users are able to design or fabricate items, some everyday users may be more interested in modifying or replacing objects that they already own rather than inventing new items. Addressing the needs of these users requires taking a different approach than that taken by most computer-aided design tools. To address this need, we introduce the notion of design from imperfect examples, in which existing objects are scanned and modified to create new objects. We present examples of this design approach and describe the development and formative evaluation of the Easy Make Oven, a prototyping tool that enables novice users to create simple 3D designs based on their existing possessions.ye

Sketching & drawing as future inquiry in HCI

Creating visual imagery helps us to situate ourselves within unknown worlds, processes, make connections, and find solutions. By exploring drawn ideas for novel technologies, we can examine the implications of their place in the world. Drawing, or sketching, for future inquiry in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) can be a stand-alone investigative approach, part of a wider ‘world-building’ in design fiction, or simply ideation around a concept. By examining instances of existing practice in HCI, in this paper we establish recommendations and rationales for those wishing to utilise sketching and drawing within their research. We examine approaches ranging from ideation, diagramming, scenario building, comics creation and artistic representation to create a model for sketching and drawing as future inquiry for HCI. This work also reflects on the ways in which these arts can inform and elucidate research and practice in HCI, and makes recommendations for the field, within its teaching, processes and outcomes

Mixed physical and virtual design environments for digital fabrication

Digital Fabrication (3D printing, laser-cutting or CNC milling) enables the automated fabrication of physical objects from digital models. This technology is becoming more readily available and ubiquitous, as digital fabrication machines become more capable and affordable. When it comes to designing the objects that are to be fabricated however, there are still barriers for novices and inconveniences for experts. Through digital fabrication, physical objects are created from digital models. The digital models are currently designed in virtual design environments, which separates the world we design in from the world we design for. This separation hampers design processes of experienced users and presents barriers to novices. For example, manipulating objects in virtual spaces is difficult, but comes naturally in the physical world. Further, in a virtual environment, we cannot easily integrate existing physical objects or experience the object we are designing in its future context (e.g., try out a game controller during design). This lack of reflection impedes designer's spatial understanding in virtual design environments. To enable our virtual creations to become physical reality, we have to posses an ample amount of design and engineering knowledge, which further steepens the learning curve for novices. Lastly, as we are physically separated from our creation - until it is fabricated - we loose direct engagement with the material and object itself, impacting creativity. We follow a research through design approach, in which we take up the role as interaction designers and engineers. Based on four novel interaction concepts, we explore how the physical world and design environments can be brought closer together, and address the problems caused their prior separation. As engineers, we implement each of these concepts in a prototype system, demonstrating that they can be implemented. Using the systems, we evaluate the concepts and how the concepts alleviate the aforementioned problems, and that the design systems we create are capable of producing useful objects. In this thesis, we make four main contributions to the body of digital fabrication related HCI knowledge. Each contribution consists of an interaction concept which addresses a subset of the problems, caused by the separation of virtual design environment, and physical target world. We evaluate the concepts through prototype implementations, example walkthroughs and where appropriate user-studies, demonstrating how the concepts alleviate the problems they address. For each concept and system, we describe the design rationale, and present technical contributions towards their implementation. The results of this thesis have implications for different user audiences, design processes, the artifacts users design and domains outside of digital fabrication. Through our concepts and systems, we lower barriers for novices to utilize digital fabrication. For experienced designers, we make existing design processes more convenient and efficient. We ease the design of artifacts that reuse existing objects, or that combine organic and geometrically structured design. Lastly, the novel interaction concepts (and on a technical level, the systems) we present, which blur the lines between physical and virtual space, can serve as basis for future interaction design and HCI research

Informing Intentional Use of Prototyping in Engineering Design: Context-Specific Novice Approaches and Stakeholder Feedback

Prototypes are essential tools that can be used strategically throughout the design process to increase the likelihood that a product achieves stakeholder needs. Prototyping allows physical or visual form to be given to an idea, and research has shown that prototypes have the potential to support communication and improve product requirements elicitation and design input by enabling stakeholders and designers to engage around a “shared space” – the prototype. Despite the numerous benefits of using prototypes throughout a design process, novice designers often limit their use of prototypes to test and verify a chosen concept during the later phases of their processes. Limited studies to date have investigated novice uses of prototypes during the front-end phases of design and the effects of context, stakeholder type, and prototype type on stakeholder feedback. This research leverages approaches from multiple disciplines to characterize 1) novice designers’ uses of prototypes and 2) the effects of various factors on stakeholder design input during engagement with prototypes. We conducted interviews with engineering design students in different contexts to investigate their use of prototypes. We also developed a prototyping best practice framework to evaluate the intentionality in novice designers’ use of prototypes during design. To deepen our understanding of how prototype type can influence stakeholder feedback, we presented various prototypes of a medical device concept to diverse stakeholders, including medical doctors, medical students and nurses and asked questions to elicit feedback on the design. Research findings indicated that novice designers lacked intentionality when using prototypes. Their prototyping behaviors often occurred unintentionally to satisfy course requirements or as a response to failure or setbacks. Novice designers from different contexts favored different prototype types, and all participants underutilized prototypes, particularly during the front-end phases of design and when engaging with stakeholders. Our results further showed that nuances like prototype type, stakeholder group, and question type influenced the quality of stakeholder feedback. Since variation in prototype type, stakeholder group, and question type had a significant effect on the quality of stakeholder feedback, and since most novice designers did not use prototypes intentionally, our findings point to missed opportunities that likely impact several areas: what novice designers learn about using prototypes, the prototyping practices with which they begin professional practice, and ultimately the human-centered design solutions they create. This research leveraged, and has implications for, engineering design, design education, industrial design, design science, and design research methods. We expect that some of our findings, specifically that 1) novice designers lacked intentionality and underutilized prototypes, and 2) the types of prototypes, stakeholders, and questions influenced stakeholder feedback, are transferable to, and can have a broader impact on, other contexts in which prototypes are used. The fact that novice designers lacked intentionality in prototype use suggests that repeated and reflective practice is needed and informs pedagogical and industrial approaches throughout the engineering education and practice spectrum. We recommend that educators encourage a broader, more frequent use of prototypes during engineering design processes. By doing so, novice designers can develop the knowledge structures necessary to use prototypes intentionally, and intentionally with stakeholders, during design.PHDDesign ScienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144132/1/midei_1.pd

Computational fabrication guided by function and material usage

This thesis introduces novel computational design paradigms for digital fabrication guided by function and material usage. With these approaches, the users can design prototypes of mechanical objects by specifying high-level functions of the objects, instead of manipulating low-level geometric details. These methods also provide the users with design suggestions which minimise material wastage during the design process. The benefit of these approaches is that the users can focus on the exploration of the design space without worrying about the realisability of the design or efficient material usage. The shallow exploration of the design space due to the lack of guidance of the users in terms of function and material usage has been one of the most critical obstacles to achieving good designs using existing design tools. We verify this hypothesis by designing and fabricating a variety of objects using our computational tools. The main contributions of the thesis are (i) clearly defined sets of constraints regarding function and material usage in the design and fabrication process, (ii) novel optimisation methods for generating designs subject to the constraints and (iii) computational tools which guide the users to design objects that satisfy the constraints

The Fabrication Commons: Creative Agency Through Intuitive Interfaces

With digital fabrication tools and networking technology becoming increasingly attainable and versatile, there is an opportunity for more people to become makers instead of just being passive consumers. How can we take advantage of this to foster larger local and global communities of makers? Most digital fabrication research focuses on a singular novel process or application of a tool, and not the actual relationship between the users and the entire fabrication process. To engage a broader audience with digital fabrication, I propose a user-centric ecosystem that attempts to seamlessly link all of the individual elements of the workflow. My research involves designing a series of prototypes for inexperienced makers that lower the barriers of complex workflows. By doing this, anyone can be empowered to shape their environment and cater to their needs and desires without relying on mass-produced goods. With more engaging, accessible methods of fabrication, people can benefit from the advantages of creating something themselves, and form communities that are more empowered and meaningfully connected

Computational Personalization through Physical and Aesthetic Featured Digital Fabrication

Thesis (Master of Science in Informatics)--University of Tsukuba, no. 41269, 2019.3.2